I cannot believe I just read this label!

[andyswarbs]

Excuse me if this seems a bit off-track, but I see healthy eating in the round. That is it is not just what is healthy for us as humans eating food, but also the impact on the environment..

And so whilst we all need to ensure our washing up provides clean crockery etc what are the repercussions, if any. Well some may argue that the research I often provide to cite reasons people might do this or the other, in this case I am citing the manufacturer's own label.

At home I wash up with Ecovert or some other brand that purports to be better for the environment. Not so today. Today I washed up with the UK's "leading" brand Fairy, and I simply could not believe what I was reading.

Yes, it says "causes serious eye irritation." But that does not concern me too much, I mean who puts washing up liquid in the eye. A bit might get in if you rub your eyes, of course, but it would be diluted and if it caused a problem then the person would be close to the tap. And anyway that's their choice.

It is the next sentence that really gets my goat. "Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects." So where does that washing up liquid end up? It all, absolutely 100% of it ends up in the rivers and seas. So anyone that is using Fairy liquid (and I guess many other brands who do not care for the environment) are very happy to intentionally at the very least cause serious long lasting damage, and indeed possibly even destroy the fish you might consume.

Just a drop from your washing up liquid, along with every one else's 3 times a day, every day of of the week, every week of the year adds up.

Harmful to aquatic life - at the very least!

I would be very interested in the opinions of others. Do you care whether the fish you eat are explicitly harmed for the long term by your daily washing up habits? Or am I making a small issue bigger than it should be.

Whatever your decision, I won't be using fairy washing up liquid ever again. With predictions of global loss of fishing habitat in the next decades I won't be party to that destruction if I can avoid it.

[grace111]

im not surprised about the things i hear these days. look at the flouride and poisons in medications and the the way some of those foods are made and all the hidden stuff thats in them. and the fertilisers they use. i wasnt aware though of the washing up liquid. thanks for bringing that to my attention. I will have to have a good think about this. no your not making big issue about something small. its good to bring it to the attention of the people who care but dont know about it. love grace xoxo

[sunny369]

harmful to aquatic life with LONG LASTING EFFECTS does sound really disturbing! I suppose the truth is we often don't pause in our day to day lives to think about these things as we squirt away at our stacks of dishes etc etc I usually buy the cheapest of the cheap smart price supermarket brand. I just had a quick look (armed with a magnifying glass) and it says nothing about aquatic damage. It does say things like 'rinse hands after use'

You have tweaked my conscience, I should think about using a more natural, environmentally friendly brand. They just seem very expensive and cost is an issue for us. I wonder what is in them to justify the cost?

[TheAwfulToad]

This sort of thing really bothers me too. Misuse of toxic chemicals has become so routine and normal that nobody even thinks about it anymore; in fact you're considered a hemp-sandalled communist if you make a fuss about it. I suppose the gubmint bears ultimate responsibility for this, in that they decide what's permitted and what isn't. Consumers can vote with their feet, but they rarely do.

Why do they even NEED to put persistent pollutants in washing up liquid? It makes no sense. There are plenty of substitutes that will do the job and then degrade quickly.

[Zest]

Hi andyswarbs

Thanks for this thought-provoking post - it is concerning to see those words on the label of such a well-known brand of washing up liquid - or indeed, any brand.

Zest

[CDreamer]

Agree, I haven’t bought that brand for many years but that is only the tip of the iceberg when we start looking at things a little closer. Trouble is marketing works and we have all been brainwashed over the last 75 years.

Time to wake up and read every label and act response-ably.

My other bug bear is air freshners and scented candles - oh and spray cleaners are THE WORST! When we sanitize our world to the nth degree we decrease the biodiversity of helpful bugs and when we do that we open ourselves up to allergies and chronic disease.

[Hidden]

Hi Andy, firstly of course I care as to me we as societies should work with nature and not against her and the short term gains are over and the consequences of our actions are now becoming apparent in so many ways. With soap powders they use LAS Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate which's not biodegradable and toxic to aquatic life. And we've all seen the washing up liquids and washing powder adverts...

I don't know how many times I've said that I'm a great believer in us the consumer knowing exactly what we eat and the same goes to everything we buy and use, as its up to us to take responsibility for our actions.

Here's a couple of less obvious examples;

Electronic air fresheners exacerbate ADHD and yet the manufacturers use slick advertising with happy families using them.

Cyanide is used in the processing of gold as it allows better extraction, gold is a vital part of our computers and mobile phones that we all use to communicate with each other.

[grace111]

Hello again Andy when you decide what your going to use to do the washing up could you please let us know as i will do the same. dont forget now.Thanks. love grace xoxo

[andyswarbs in reply to grace111]

This washing up liquid belongs to my sister-in-law. We visit once a month on average to help look after my mother-in-law who has very bad dementia. We have bought her a bottle of ecover. We will use that ourselves in future. I feel my sister in law will continue to use fairy, regardless.

(Every time we visit there seems to be a new large bottle!)

[Penel]

Not a small issue at all.

There are various sites with information on the environmental impact of washing -up liquids etc. The problem may be finding them for sale. We buy Bio D from our local Oxfam shop.

ethicalconsumer.org/home-ga...

[Lantyrn]

I use Ecover washing-up and laundry liquid. They use natural ingredients and also have the eye irritation warning which is no surprise as even natural substances can be irritants (lemon juice, pepper, etc). For cleaning surfaces, I use a few drops of tea tree oil in water. Also spray in my pongy workboots which are no longer pongy.

[Diana in reply to Lantyrn]

I’m with you on this one, Ecover, I also use lemon, vinegar and generally cleaning stuff, and think colour sand stuff is not needed, even method add colour to their stuff, why.?